SSDT Resources

A-site Annual Financial Report

Is anyone still doing the A-site Annual Financial Report and sending it to ODE? I have done one every year since I have been at NCOCC, but recently talked to someone at another ITC who said they hadn't done one is several years. Contact information I have to send the report to is Dan L. Brown, Consultant, Ohio Education Computer Network, Division of Information Management Services, Ohio Dept. of Education, 1320 Arthur E. Adams Drive, Room 411, Columbus, OH, 43221-3595. So, not only do I need to know if they are still required, I need to know if this is the correct info on where to send.

2 Answers

As far as I know, sending the data in via EMIS as Jeff describes has been the only submission needed for the past several years for ITC's. However, AOS has developed a new process for submitting the financial reports for this year. Our NWOCA treasurer received direct email from them on July 14th and again on August 4th with details on this new reporting process. Below is the text of the first email, the second email from August 4th provided more details on the new system. It appears that this new reporting system will affect all entities that are required to file an annual financial report with AOS.

Thanks,Melissa

The
Ohio Auditor of State’s Office (AOS) would like to make you aware of changes
occurring to the manner in which your entity’s annual financial report is
submitted to the AOS as required by Ohio Revised Code (ORC) Section 117.38.

ORC
Section 117.38 requires that local public offices file their annual financial
reports with the AOS. The due date for the report for the period July 1,
2014 to June 30, 2015 is August 31, 2015, with an exception for entities
reporting pursuant to generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP).
The due date for entities who file GAAP, with the exception of Community
Improvement Corporations is 150 days following the end of the fiscal year or
November 27, 2015. The due date for Community Improvement Corporations is
120 days following the end of the fiscal year or October 28, 2015. Failure
to comply with these filing requirements may subject your entity to the
penalties established by the ORC.

In the past, this filing requirement was met in various ways that
have included mailing a hard copy of the financial report to the AOS; emailing
or otherwise electronically filing the financial report with our Local
Government Services Section. For filing the
year-ended June 30, 2015 financial information with the AOS, all entities will
be required to utilize the Auditor of State’s Annual Financial Data Reporting
System (AFDRS). AFDRS is an Internet-based application that allows an
upload of a PDF copy of your entity’s financial statements to be transmitted to
the AOS to satisfy the filing requirements prescribed by the ORC.

Additional specific information regarding how to access AFDRS to
submit your entity’s financial statements provided no later than Monday, August
3, 2015. The purpose of this email is to make you aware of the change in the
filing requirement and to ensure the AOS has the most current contact
information on file for your governmental entity.

We ask that you reply to this email only if you are not the
proper person to contact regarding the filing of the annual financial report
for your entity. If you are not the entity’s current fiscal officer and
are required to respond, please provide the proper person to contact regarding the
filing of the annual financial report including the person’s name, title and
email in your response no later than Friday, July 24, 2015.

Thank you for your patience and understanding as we transition to
this new method for filing the annual financial reports.

This is the first I have heard of this. If an email went out to
anyone, it did not go to me. We have a fiscal agent, but I have
always submitted our Annual Financial Report to ODE, which is why I
was asking. When I asked our fiscal agent, they didn't seem to know
what I was talking about. Info may have gone to our director, but he
recently
retired. Where can I go for more information on AFDRS, what report(s)
need to be filed and how to set up any necessary account, etc.?

The emails came directly from AOS to our NWOCA treasurer (we are a COG
and do not have a fiscal agent). I don't believe ODE is involved in
this at all and AFAIK only the EMIS reporting is necessary to ODE.
The link to the AFDRS system in the 2nd email was entity-specific and
was not to be shared with others. I don't know if this new process is
required if you are going through a fiscal agent or not. I believe
you will need to contact the Auditor of State's office directly to
find out if you are to be reporting through this system or not, and if
so get any further information from them.

Hmmm... that sounds like outdated info. I'm pretty well sure Dan Brown passed away sometime back. I sort of took note when it happened, since he was the one that hired me to work for ODE in December of 1978. That financial data also gets reported through EMIS via the Data Collector. USAEMS has questions about you running it for an ITC. I believe I just copied the USAEMS.SEQ file to a folder (for the old MEC) and Charla Green would process it and send it onto the State.